Summer Update

I haven't written in a while simply because not much is happening in my life.  I'm still in a Life Group, I still volunteer with the USO and I still live with Elaina.  Summer has been hot, humid and thurnderstormy!

I do have exciting news to share regarding Elaina!  On June 9, 2017, she published a novel on Amazon Digital Services LLC  called, Chasing Hope, A Story about Finding Family. 

Paperback book cover

In the first few days there were over 900 downloads of her novel. As a marketing plan, these downloads were free, with the idea that good reviews would come from those downloads. She currently has 16 great reviews on Amazon and a few more on Good Reads.  It's listed in the category of Women's Fiction and Romance.  If you like uplifting stories with substance and heart, you will enjoy her novel!

There have been many more downloads of the Kindle version and also paperbacks that have been sold.  We are hoping for an increase in sales as time goes by.  She is currently working on another novel that will include characters from the first one.  Her "fans" have asked for more!

Here's a link to her author page on Amazon:

https://www.amazon.com/Elaina-Avalos/e/B071WZP392/ref=ntt_dp_epwbk_0


And a link to her Amazon reviews:  

https://www.amazon.com/Chasing-Hope-Story-Finding-Family-ebook/dp/B071GF5WBD/ref=asap_bc?ie=UTF8

And Good Reads:

https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/35404073-chasing-hope?from_search=true

I am extremely proud of her for using her God-given gift of writing.  I know God smiles every time she writes a new sentence. 


That's it for now, until I have more to say!  (I've lived here for over a year and a half now, so I'm practically a native! 😉)

Mothers Day Saturday

Elaina asked me what I wanted for Mothers Day and I said I wanted to go to Riverside Barn Antique store in the town of Wallace, NC.  So we did.

But first we went to a fundraiser for Justice Disney at a Swansboro bakery called "Frosted."  Justice is the two year old son of Amanda and Derrick Disney, who is one of Elaina's squadron Marines. Justice has leukemia and has been through a lot of chemo and ups and downs for the past year.  He and his parents are now going through bone marrow transplant proceedings at Duke Medical Center.  This puts a big strain on the Disney's finances. Frosted held a raffle event and contributed their proceeds from the day's sales to the Disney family.  It was a huge success and Elaina and I each won one of the prizes offered in the raffle!  Look up "Team Justice: Keeping Him Disney Strong" on Facebook.

Derrick, Amanda, Justice and Annabelle Disney

Riverside Barn antique store is out in the "boonies" as we say. We drove through miles and miles of nothing but trees and farmland. It was a beautiful drive.  The store is huge and really packed with antiques of all kinds.

They were hit badly by Hurricane Matthew last year,
but have recovered.

See the trees?  This was our view the whole ride out there.
We were expecting a thunderstorm that never materialized.  That's why it looks dark!

The town of Wallace was 5 miles from the antique store and about an hour away from Jacksonville. They just happened to be having their strawberry festival that weekend, so we got to enjoy a little small town culture once again.

It was much like the street fair we used to go to in Orange.  We ate "barbecue" for lunch (shredded pork and coleslaw on a roll) and we shared deep fried strawberries, with powdered sugar and chocolate syrup drizzled over top!  It was good, but not my favorite way to eat strawberries.

Since Burgaw is only 15 miles from Wallace, we went there too and went in my favorite Burgaw antique store, Fremont Antiques.  

At Riverside Barn I bought a few items to list on Etsy and at Fremont Antiques Elaina bought me a couple of cute items to add to my own collection of vintage things. 

Maxwell House Coffee Jar

Cast Metal Little Girl

I think this day was the most fun I've ever had on Mothers Day! As Elaina says,"true story."  Thank you Sweetheart for a great day!

Trip to California

On April 11th, this girl got on an airplane (or 3) and flew to California!  My sister, Sue requested me for her birthday gift, so why not?  Unexpected and exciting!

I flew from the small Jacksonville airport, Albert J. Ellis, early that morning and landed in Charlotte 50 minutes later.  We left the terminal late, but actually arrived in Charlotte early!  How do they do that?

I got on the next flight and flew to Dallas/Fort Worth airport.  That airport is overwhelming. Like a major city all its own.  Had to take a train shuttle to the next gate. Standing room only, much like a NY subway.

We landed in Ontario while it was still light out.  Sue and Ron picked me up and took me to their house, which is a "new" house to me.  They moved to a manufactured house in a nice senior park in Corona after I moved to North Carolina.

It was great to get see Sue and Ron again.  I miss my sister every day!  They visited me last November, but it seemed like much longer since I had seen them.  Their home is so nice and it looks like it's in the middle of a park. They have some beautiful flowering plants and bushes around their just-right-size yard. I love the porch and the view they have. The house is just the right size for them and they love it.

Sue and I went to some thrift stores and antique stores the first couple of days.  It's one of our favorite things to do together. We also had to shop for new flip flops for me!  I found a silk scarf in an antique store to list in my Etsy shop.  As always, it's fun to shop for old things that we both love.

Because my son Matt,  still lives in the area, I was able to have lunch with him and his girlfriend one day.  It's been a year and a half since I've seen him! It was so good to give him a hug!

Matt and his girlfriend came to Sue and Ron's for Easter lunch after church, so I had a little more time with him that day.  Ron barbecued hamburgers and hot dogs and we ate out on the patio.

Unfortunately, on my third day there, I came down with a sore throat and a cough and runny nose!  What?  Not fair!  It made sleeping a little hard and I didn't have as much energy as I would have liked.  

We went out to Lake Elsinore and saw our Mom's house, where I had lived for the previous 10 years or so.  It's been sold and looks like it's being taken care of.

We also visited Little House of Treasures in Murrieta, where I used to have a small space to sell items.  It was nice to see Don again and visit with Rea over the phone while I was there.  Had to buy something there, of course.

Sue and I watched a lot of episodes of Call the Midwife, (after Ron went to bed!) starting from the beginning. That was fun!

I think it was two days before I was due to leave, that I also got conjunctivitis in my left eye!  It was miserable!  I ended up having to go to an urgent care office and get an antibiotic for my eye.  Not fun!

Somehow, I convinced Matt to get me to the airport for the flights home.  I bought some sunglasses to wear home to hide my sick eye. Want to know how you know you're old?  When wearing the sunglasses indoors at Ontario airport, headed to security, I was at the escalator when an employee asked me if I would be more comfortable using the elevator...Why?  Because I'm a blind elderly woman?  Yeah, that's what she thought.  Oh well, I handled the escalator just fine thank you.

I think the only thing I miss about California (besides the people) was seeing the mountains with a little tiny bit of snow, and the Santa Ana Mountains.  In my part of ENC, we don't have any mountains.  Some day I would like to go to the western part of the state and see mountains again.  I don't miss the number of cars on the road in California!

I'm so glad I got to have this trip.  I appreciate the chance to go see Sue and Ron and Matt!  So nice.  I never expected to get to see them so soon after moving here.

Thank you Sue and Ron for giving me the chance to take this trip! I'm sorry I got sick! Let's do it again sometime. Or you can come here!

Sunday 4/29

I haven't written a blog post in a long time.  Too busy with other things I guess.  I am enjoying my time with my Life Group ladies, still volunteering with USO, though not as much lately, and trying to keep my Etsy shop up and running. But I thought I would write today.

The last two days have been spent in Beaufort.  Elaina bought a ticket to the Beaufort Wine and Cheese event for yesterday, and a ticket to the Vin de Mere Epicurean Village for today.  Eastern North Carolinians love their food and wine events. This weekend's events are a fundraiser for various charities each year. Townspeople attend these events, but so do the people that come by yacht from all over.

Last year I attended the Food Truck Rodeo with Elaina. It was okay, but maybe not as well done as we had hoped.

I rode along to spend the day in Beaufort, one of my favorite places to be.  (Elaina can eat oysters and cucumber saki, if she wants, just let me have the sea breeze and the view).

I've written about Beaufort before of course, but I'll say a little more again and add some photos.

Beaufort was started in 1709 and is famous for the pirate ship The Queen Ann's Revenge among other things.  I visited the Maritime Museum while I was there and saw so many  items found on the wreckage of the Queen Ann's Revenge.  The museum has a lot of information on Blackbeard and his three ships along with all kinds of maritime information. I was fascinated by the displays of the original Coast Guard service and their methods of saving people from shipwrecks. They used a pulley-like system using something called a "Breeches Buoy."  People could put their legs through the buoy and be pulled to shore from a ship.  That was as far back as the 1800's.  I found a picture of a breeches buoy: 

Maritime museum

I walked around town and watched boats zipping around in Taylor's Creek.  It was a busy day for boaters and shoppers today.

sorry, Blogger doesn't let me move photos around easily.

The land across from these pictures is Carrot Island, where the wild ponies are.  I caught a picture of one yesterday.  Look closely, he's there.

Because the town is so old, there are many, many houses with historical designations, like this one I passed walking to the antique stores. I think the oldest house is from 1700.

I did a brave thing for me today; I walked into a restaurant, "Finz Grill" to have lunch by myself.  I didn't want to give up my parking space to go find "fast food" so I sat by myself and ate lunch there.

They have a waterfront patio, but I ate inside.  While I was there a Coast Guard boat docked at the patio and they sat out on the patio to have lunch. (I've heard them called "Coasties" but I don't think they like that. Not sure what they are referred to)

Much of the time I sat on a bench at the boardwalk and just enjoyed the sun, the sea breeze and people watching.  Got my daily dose of vitamin D3 today.

Before it was time to pick up Elaina from the event, I decided to get an ice cream cone from one of the shops.  (I got peanut butter cup flavor!) The girl behind the counter scooped my ice cream and set it on the counter and I handed her my debit card.  She said, we only take a debit card with a $6 purchase.  Oh my.  My cone was $3.18.  I only had two dollar bills on me.  I wasn't sure what to do.  Buy a second cone and let it drip all over the place?  But a young couple with 3-4 kids came in and the woman handed the cashier a 5 dollar bill.  I didn't realize at first what was happening until the cashier gave the woman change.  I said, "Did you just pay for that?"  The woman said "yes."  I thanked her and tried to give her my 2 dollar bills, but she wouldn't take them.

She said they had had someone pay for their $40 meal once at a restaurant that only took cash, which they hadn't come prepared for. She was just paying it forward and I was the happy recipient.  Such a nice surprise.  I will have to remember to do that for someone else soon.

The next photos are from the far end of Front Street in Beaufort. There are some beautiful homes, big and small and some with private docks. It's a narrow little street and when bike riders are out in force, you have to squeeze by. I think these trees are southern live oak trees.

It was a gorgeous day really and always does me good, to get outside and enjoy what ENC has to offer.  I am grateful to get to live in a place with so much nature!  (minus the mosquitoes)

Here's a link to the town website.  Do yourself a favor and go look at nice photos of  Beaufort!  http://www.beaufortnc.org/

Also:
https://www.google.com/search?q=beaufort,+nc&source=lnms&tbm=isch&sa=X&ved=0ahUKEwj-n_HByM3TAhWB2SYKHY4EDiYQ_AUICygC&biw=1366&bih=638#imgrc=ajiu3qc-3ge83M:

Friday: Busy Day at the USO

I worked at the USO today from 9 a.m. until 1:30 p.m.  They had a special day for about 200 Marines from Camp Johnson (also in Jacksonville).  They were given a day off to just have fun and they were bused over to the USO. These are YOUNG Marines. I'm guessing early twenties and younger.  Probably 95% male and 5% female.  Just for information's sake, here's info about Camp Johnson:

Mission

The purpose of the camp is to conduct formal resident training for officers and enlisted personnel in the occupational fields of logistics, motor transport, personnel administration, supply, and financial management ( accounting and disbursing), as well as to conduct instructional management and combat water survival swim training. In addition to training Marines, Camp Johnson also houses the Field Medical Training Battalion, which trains corpsmen and religious program specialists of the Navy. The commanding officer of MCCSSS also serves as the area commander of Camp Johnson, and provides administrative support to various tenant commands.

(It was also, a long time ago the training facility for the Montford Point Marines, the first black Marines)

     I helped with setting up chairs and food tables.  We had tons of Girl Scout cookies to set out. The Marines started coming around 10 and were given an introduction to the USO by two staff men who are retired Marines.  They were told of the historical aspects of this particular USO (the oldest continuous operating USO in the world!)

     They were told to relax and have fun!  There were poker tables set up, corn hole games, board games, chess, table tennis, pool tables, video games, etc.  There was plenty for them to do until the food arrived.

     Two different restaurants provided pizza, pizza and more pizza. The USO staff provided taco and burrito fillings, slider sandwiches, salad, chips, rice and beans and more.  I worked at the salad and taco filling table and watched more than a few pour ranch dressing on their pizza!  (I thought that just happened in California.)  Looking at their too full plates, I heard many say, "Man, I'm going to pay for this on Monday!"  Peanut Butter Patties, Samoas and Thin Mint Girl Scout cookies were the favorites!

     If you get discouraged about the youth of the country, spend some time with Marines.  I probably heard, "Good morning Ma'am" and "thank you Ma'am" at least 100 times today. They were all polite and respectful and grateful for the day.  What's hard is having them say to you, "thank you for all you do for us...."  Wow.  It's the other way around, don't you know?

     I think they had a lot of fun until the buses came to get them at 4. I'm so blessed to be able to be there and help when I can. If you ever get the chance to volunteer at a USO, DO IT!  I come home from these events exhausted!  But it's an amazing experience.

Here: https://www.uso.org/centers/united-states

They also take donations!

https://www.uso.org/take-action/ways-to-support

Feb. 1, 2017 A Fun Day

I spent 3 hours at the USO this morning with 7 other volunteers making up rack packs.  How many?  We made up 1,025 rack packs! In case you don't remember what they are:  One of these goes on each single Marine's "rack" when they get back to the barracks after a deployment. They're items they might need immediately, like toothbrush, and paste, razors,  a bar of soap, deodorant and a small snack among other things. In case it's not obvious to you, since they needed 1,025 rack packs, that means some Marines are on their way "home."  When we make "deployment" packs, that means....some are headed out.  Here I am in gray sweater:

After that I stopped for a quick lunch and decided to visit some thrift stores since I was in that part of town.  I never know what to expect from thrift stores, but today was a good day.  I visited this place: 

It's been a thrift store before, but I think it has new owners now.  I saw a plate that looked interesting but it was marked $5.  I saw that it had some chips so I decided not to buy it, but the woman working there, said, "Oh, I'll give it to you for $1.00."  OKAY!  I'll take it.  There was also a small china saucer (blue and white, which I love) marked $3, but I told her no on that too.  That's when she said, "Just a dollar."  Another OKAY!

An older man came into the store saying he'd never been in and wanted to know, "What can I do without?"  Right there I thought of my dad.  The employee showed him something she just bought herself and he said, "But I wanted that!"  Oh my gosh, that sounds just like something my dad would have said.  Later he saw me pick up my mystery piece.  I asked him if he knew what it was and he answered, "No, but I wanted it!"  So much like my dad would have said to someone.  He was kidding of course.  On my way out he said, "You gonna let me buy that?"  I told him he could have it for $20 (I paid 1.75).  He offered .50.  So, no deal.  Ha ha. Here's my purchases from there:  

The luncheon plate is from the 1930s, made by W.S. George Co.  The saucer says Turin and a number on the back, but I couldn't find the pattern anywhere.

Here's the mystery piece.  

 The mystery is not necessarily what it is, but why it's made the way it is.  It stands up on four rubber feet but opened, it is a grater on both sides, with a piece of wood in between.  It's stainless steel and has the word "SlimSlice" on it. The company name is Invento Product Corp.  I found that it was started in 1960 but currently inactive. Can't see much use as a slicer, but the grating part sure is sharp. (Maybe it's missing something?)

I also went to the Infant of Prague Catholic thrift store and found three small Fire King custard cups in the primrose pattern. 

(Forty cents each.) Etsy has 182 Fire King Primrose items listed.   That's nothing; some vintage items can have 4-5 thousand listings of the same thing, or at least similar.

All of these things can be added to my Etsy shop. Hoping February is a better month for sales!

https://www.etsy.com/shop/PicketfencesVintage

It's always fun when I find some deals that I know could possibly sell on Etsy, and so cheap!  Tomorrow I do laundry.

(Friday, another USO event)

Saturday the 14th

Elaina and I wanted to try out a new grocery store that opened in New Bern called "Publix."   I had a feeling it was going to be pricey as far as groceries go, but those kind of stores tend to have more variety of items than we can find in Food Lion or Walmart.

They carry a low calorie kind of ice cream-like item by the brand name of Halo Top that Elaina likes, so we bought that and a few items that just looked good.  It's a beautiful store and has all kinds of immentities, but too pricey for our everyday kind of shopping.

Of course, since it's in New Bern, they have to have their own Bear out front like most bigger businesses in New Bern.  
(Swiss Bern = Bear)

Well, because we were in New Bern, we also had to stop at Andrea's Attic Antiques on Trent.  This is one of our favorite places and I refer to the proprietor as our "Southern Gentleman."  He is a nice man with a truly southern accent.  Not just southern, but more of a refined accent, thus, my nickname for him.  Heard today that he used to be "in insurance."  He has maybe a hundred framed art pieces throughout the store and he is very proud of them.

(This one is labeled 1920s Mission at Santa Barbara, CA $495)

He buys complete estates and keeps the store packed with antiques. Today he was excited to show me a quilt he had just purchased for the store.  He had me help him open it up completely to show it to me.  He was proud of the fact that it was a North Carolina flower design.  He made a point of saying it was not a Pennsylvania Dutch pattern, but was truly a North Carolina pattern.

(The top quilt on the right is the one. Priced at $295.
It was very big!)

I didn't find anything there for me to buy today.  That doesn't mean I didn't see anything I wanted!  Like I said, it's packed with antiques of all kinds and if he was giving them away, I'd gladly take them!

It was a nice day to get out of the house and see new things.

Etsy in December 2016

December 2016 has been my best month for selling on Etsy, EVER.

Here it is the 20th of the month and I have had 13 sales. (14 items) Last December I had one sale.  It was a good one, but just the one. 

I have been trying to learn more about selling online and I guess some of what I've learned is paying off.  I've learned that you absolutely have to connect on other social media like Pinterest and Instagram.  I think those two have given my shop more exposure. (Thanks to my daughter for her social media expertise.)

That's done by "pinning" my own items to Pinterest boards, and posting pictures of my for sale items on Instagram using hashtags that are popular with other people who love vintage items.  
Like:
#vintageshopping
#fleamarketfinds
#vintageinspired

If you've ever wondered what kinds of things I sell, or what kinds of  vintage things people buy on Etsy, here's my December list of items sold:

Vintage Button Brooch

George and Martha Creamer and Sugar

Will Rogers Bio Book

Vintage pot holders

Embroidered Cloth

Art Deco Vanity set

1971  Cloth Calendar

Toy Iron

Children's Muffin tins

Amish Pepper Shaker

Embroidered Cloth

Mother of Pearl Tie Tack

Vintage Anne Diary

Hankie filled with Lavender

Am I making a living?  Far from it.  So far still a hobby, but who knows.  It may come in handy some day.  Here's the link to my shop:

https://www.etsy.com/shop/PicketfencesVintage

Here's my Instagram:

https://www.instagram.com/picketfences3

Here's my Pinterest:

https://www.pinterest.com/Picketfences3